The Robert M. Beren Academy is an Orthodox Jewish school in Houston, TX. Its men’s basketball team, the Beren Academy Stars, qualified for the Division 2A state championship tournament – but, since the games fall during the Jewish Sabbath, the team has chosen to withdraw from the tournament on religious grounds. If Beren were a member of a secular sports league, or even a member of an explicitly Christian league, all I’d really have to say to them is “tough… Read more
American Atheists is now taking their billboard messages directly to the communities that need to hear them the most. Specifically, they’re advertising the Reason Rally and their national convention both in Hebrew (to people in Brooklyn, NY) and in Arabic (to people in Patterson NJ). Both billboards say, “You know it’s a myth… and you have a choice.” The big words on the left read Yahweh and Allah, respectively. (Not sure about the color combination in that first billboard, but… Read more
The state of Georgia cannot figure out what to do with the phrase “In God We Trust” when it comes to cars. First, they wanted people to vote on the state’s new license plates… but they “accidentally” tagged certain plates with the IGWT phrase. Because of that mistake, they conducted a revote. Then, State Sen. Bill Heath (R-Bremen) tried to make “In God We Trust” a permanent fixture on every license plate. Through all of this, stickers with the phrase… Read more
There was a meeting where this idea came up… and got approved. I’m still trying to get over that. And this is why no one should go to church. Ever. Oh, by the way, the people at Stevens Creek Church really want your money. Because how else are they going to make high-quality videos like this one? In case that one’s not enough for you, the same does did a Saturday Night Live Cheerleaders parody a couple of weeks ago…… Read more
I love it when Dave Silverman appears on FOX News Channel. He was invited on there today, along with religion advocate Sandy Rios, to discuss a recent piece bashing Catholicism on Huffington Post. The substance of that conversation isn’t all that interesting, but you have to love the way Dave uses his “last word” (starting at the 8:32 mark): I think he and Sandy just bonded 🙂 (via Mediaite) Read more
Looks like someone messed with one of the flyers put up by The Secular Alliance at the University of Chicago: Atheists are dumb?! That’s it. Forget the ice cream. I need to get myself to church. Read more
I know your answers to this already, but if you’re an evangelical Christian, the expectation is that you’re abstinent until marriage. In some cases, you may even wait until your wedding day to share your first kiss. Director Matt Barber and his team are trying to tell the story of people who go to these churches and abide (or don’t) by these teachings. Turns out waiting for marriage isn’t for everyone, even some of the Christians interviewed: Jesus, Don’t Let… Read more
Tonight is it! The scholarship drive for Jessica Ahlquist closes today. After that, I need a week or so to figure out what donations were made directly to the American Humanist Association and what money will be contributed from the Evil Little Thing t-shirt sales, and then I’ll report back how much was raised altogether. Can we hit $50,000…? Thanks for your support, everyone! Read more
Chris Stedman is an atheist. But because he’s more interested in forming alliances with religious people so they can work together toward their common goals and less interested in arguing over their differences (and why they’re wrong), he gets a really bad rap in the atheist community. Chris doesn’t “support” faith, he doesn’t believe faith is harmless, and he has no problem criticizing faith when it’s necessary. But he’s not going out of his way to trash religious people because… Read more
